Latest news with #NoEscapeFromNow
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne biopic: Sony takes final call on film after rock legend's passing
'SHARONNNNN…they could not finish our f--ing movie before I f--ing kicked the bucket!' - probably Ozzy Osbourne in heaven (or hell). An Osbourne biopic is reportedly in the works, that will document Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's lives in the years between 1979 and 1999.(AP) Sony Pictures is charging ahead with the much-anticipated biopic chronicling the legendary life of Ozzy Osbourne and the fierce, rollercoaster love story he shared with his wife, Sharon Osbourne. First announced in 2021, this cinematic tribute aims to capture the epic highs and chaotic lows of one of rock's most iconic couples. Polygram Entertainment confirmed that Sony is currently negotiating with a director, with an official announcement expected soon. Meanwhile, Lee Hall is still attached as screenwriter, ensuring the Osbourne story stays authentic and true to its roots. Also Read | Ozzy Osbourne's final occupation revealed in death certificate Bringing the Osbournes to the big screen The Osbourne family remains deeply involved in the project, with Sharon and their children Jack and Aimee set to produce alongside top executives from Polygram and Sony. The biopic will cover the turbulent years between 1979 and 1999 - an era marked by wild antics, heartbreak, and an unbreakable bond fueled by 'undying love,' as Sharon once put it. Casting ideas have sparked some lively debates: Sharon is keen on Florence Pugh to play her, while Jack humorously suggested Bill Hader for Ozzy - earning a legendary 'F--k off' from the Prince of Darkness himself. Also Read | Kelly Osbourne pays bold tribute to father Ozzy days after his funeral - Watch 'I wanna be alive to f--ing see (the film)' In a candid moment during a 2024 episode of The Osbournes Podcast, Ozzy gave a brutally honest update on the film's progress, saying, 'By the time they finish this film, I'll be dead. I wanna be alive to f--king see it.' Sharon added with a wry smile, 'Movies take forever to make.' Sadly, Ozzy passed away on July 22, 2025, at the age of 76, but his epic story and legendary love with Sharon will live on in theaters worldwide. For fans craving more, the upcoming documentary No Escape From Now will premiere later this year, offering an intimate look at Ozzy's recent health struggles and his dream of one final farewell concert. Rock and roll may be unpredictable, but the Osbourne legacy is here to stay.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne Biopic Still Moving Forward as Sony Is in Negotiations With Director
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's love story will still make its way to the big screen following the musician's death. According to Variety, representatives for Polygram Entertainment confirmed that Sony will move forward with the biopic about the metal legend's life and relationship that was first announced in 2021. 'They're currently in negotiations with a director, which could be confirmed very soon,' the Universal Music Group company shared. Lee Hall is still attached to complete the screenplay. Osbourne Media will develop the film alongside Polygram Entertainment and Sony. More from Rolling Stone Farewell Gifts and Flowers From Ozzy Osbourne Fans Will Be Preserved and Archived for Family Jack Osbourne Says 'My Heart Has Hurt Too Much' as He Mourns His Father Ozzy Ozzy Osbourne's Cause of Death Revealed '@SonyPictures and Polygram Entertainment are developing a biopic chronicling the extraordinary life of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, and the great love story between him and his wife, Sharon,' parties attached to the film shared in 2021. Ozzy shared the post on Twitter nearly four years ago alongside a photo of himself with Sharon. At the time, Sharon shared, 'Our relationship at times was often wild, insane and dangerous but it was our undying love that kept us together. We're thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and Polygram to bring our story to the screen.' She will produce the film along with their children Jack and Aimee Osbourne, as well as Polygram's Michele Anthony and David Blackman and Sony's Andrea Giannetti. During an episode of The Osbournes Podcast in 2024, Ozzy shared a blunt update on the progression of the film. 'By the time they finish this film, I'll be dead,' he said. 'I wanna be alive to fucking see it.' Sharon added, 'Movies take forever to make.' The musician died on July 22 at the age of 76. Jack noted that the film is expected to span their relationship between 1979 and 1999. The family debated which actors should play the leading roles, with Sharon expressing interest in Florence Pugh and Kelly noting that her father should be played by 'an unknown actor who is very good,' adding, 'I don't think there's anyone you could think of now who would be able to do it.' Jack pitched Bill Hader for the role, but received a swift 'Fuck off' from Ozzy in response. No Escape From Now, an upcoming documentary about Ozzy's health setbacks in recent years and his desire to stage a farewell concert, will also still arrive later this year. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why the World Never Fell Out of Love with the Prince of Darkness
Ozzy Osbourne told Rolling Stone in 2002 he already knew what his epitaph would say. 'I guarantee that if I was to die tonight, tomorrow it would be, 'Ozzy Osbourne, the man who bit the head off a bat, died in his hotel room …'' he said. 'I know that's coming.' He'd made his peace with that fate. 'I've got no complaints. At least I'll be remembered.' But Ozzy got this one wrong. The world is in mourning for him, after the news of his death yesterday at 76. But not as a cartoon metal maniac chomping on bat flesh. We're mourning for Ozzy as one of the most unimpeachably human voices in music, and one of the most cherished legends in pop culture. It was Ozzy's moon. The rest of us just barked at it. For a guy with such a niche background — no rock band had ever set out to scare normies away like Black Sabbath — he became a universal figure as beloved as Ringo. Who else could sing duets with Lita Ford, Busta Rhymes, Elton John, Post Malone, and Miss Piggy without losing any metal cred? No matter how prolific or unprolific he was, even when he was a mess, people cherished Ozzy with an intensely loyal affection that was really unlike anything else. The world never fell out of love with this Prince of Darkness. More from Rolling Stone Ozzy Osbourne Documentary 'No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: 'In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking' Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert Ozzy blew up into a Seventies teenage antihero because he seemed to speak for the misfits, the rejects, the outcasts. He helped invent metal as we know it with Black Sabbath, but he kept rolling through the years with one of the longest and strangest rock careers. With The Osbournes, he became the world's favorite sitcom dad. By the 2000s, he could show up at Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth's Royal Jubilee, to celebrate her 40th anniversary, and serenade Her Majesty with 'Paranoid.' There was nothing at all controversial about the Prince of Darkness singing for the Defender of the Faith. She greeted him in the reception line with 'I hear you're a bit of a wild man.' 'Prince William said to me later, 'It would have been great if you had done 'Black Sabbath,''' Ozzy told RS. 'If I had done 'Black Sabbath,' the fucking royal box would have turned to stone, and the Archbishop of Canterbury would have had to douse them in holy water.' Ozzy's nine lives had nine lives apiece. He managed the historic feat of getting kicked out of Black Sabbath for doing too many drugs, in 1979. The fact that he kept waking up alive every morning for the next 40-plus years is one of the weirdest things that's ever happened in rock & roll. Nobody would have bet on this guy to survive the Eighties, much less keep getting more famous every year, but his star never stopped rising. He did more farewell tours than Cher, Elton, and the Who combined, following up No More Tours in 1992 with his Retirement Sucks tour, then going out again in 2018 with his awesomely titled No More Tours II. But he hated being offstage, and talked constantly in his final years about his drive to get back out there, despite his Parkinson's diagnosis. He even got to attend his own farewell party, performing his last concert with his old mates in Black Sabbath just a couple of weeks before his death, in his hometown of Birmingham, England. The 'Back to the Beginning' farewell show was a full-on celebration of his life and legacy, an electric funeral, with a host of fellow music legends paying their respects. One of the most poignant and heartfelt tributes came from Dolly Parton, with whom Ozzy has a surprising amount in common. Both became anti-establishment stars in the 1970s, too out there for the mainstream, dismissed as cartoon jokes, yet finally celebrated as true heroes decades ahead of their time. Her video message played on the screen between sets. 'Now, are we supposed to be saying farewell to you?' Dolly said. 'Well, I don't think that's going to happen. How about we just say good luck, God bless you, and we will see you somewhere down the road. Anyway, I love you, always have. And we're gonna miss you up onstage, but you know what? I wouldn't be surprised if you don't show up somewhere else — and I'll be there.' It all came down to his voice. Even when Ozzy wasn't the one writing the lyrics, they were inseparable from his quavering voice, as pure in its earnest simplicity as Brian Wilson. He sang about the morbid sense of doom that Seventies and Eighties kids felt during the era of the superpower nuclear arms race, a topic he revisited far more than any other rock star, in classics like 'War Pigs,' 'Crazy Train,' 'Children of the Grave,' or 'Electric Funeral.' He was one of very few voices anywhere in pop culture who brought this much moral wrath and empathy to the kids living under the mushroom cloud, especially the American teenagers reaching draft age around the time Paranoid and Master of Reality came out. For them, the fiery doom of 'Black Sabbath' was no occult metaphor. Ozzy's Iron Man and Bowie's Major Tom were the twin rock images of alienated youth in the 1970s, pissed off at the nuclear future their elders had built for them, sneering in aloof disdain behind a spaced-out mask. As Ozzy said, they'd seen the future and they'd left it behind. Right from the start, Ozzy sang with an authentic purity, but that purity was more than just part of his voice — it was his voice. Unlike other hard-rock singers at the time, he did not try to get bluesy, and he did not aspire to the muscle of a soul belter. He didn't bother with sexy-stud posturing or macho bluster. He was one of us. His moral force is part of what made him so genuinely scary when he arrived — Alice Cooper, that guy was funny and cool, but Ozzy's power was all in the way he undeniably meant every word he sang. Black Sabbath's music was terrifying to me as a kid, growing up in the suburbs — it was the stuff that the cool, scary older kids listened to when the adults weren't around, when they were smoking and partying, scared kids in the dark. On the bridge near my house, by Milton High School, the words were spray-painted: 'Welcome to Ozzy's Coven.' (Which was how I learned the word coven.) Yet Ozzy's voice sounded so benign and compassionate, downright vulnerable. The first time I ever heard his voice was at my next-door neighbor's house, in his big brother's basement pad, where he kept a piranha and played the first Sabbath album. I remember hearing 'N.I.B.,' with Ozzy singing in the voice of the devil. Yet what made it so scarily piercing was how forlorn and frail he sounded. It blew my mind when he quoted Buddy Holly, singing 'Your love for me has got to be real' — I knew that line from my Fifties-rocker parents listening to 'Not Fade Away.' What did Ozzy mean by making the devil a Buddy Holly-style romantic? It was a world away from the just-call-me-Luuucifaaaah strut of Mick Jagger. Ozzy's devils sounded so scary because they were mostly afraid of themselves. In his solo years, he played up the comedy, in a great hit like 'Flying High Again,' kicking off with a massive Randy Rhoads riff while Ozzy burbles in his most hapless voice, 'Oh noooo! Here we go!' It sums up his immensely lovable warmth right down to the way he sings, 'Am I just a crazy guy?' and then snickers, 'You bet.' But he still had that unimpeachable realness in his voice — for him, it was practically all he had in his voice. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats really captured his mystique for latter-day fans in his novella Master of Reality, written in the voice of an institutionalized teenage Sabbath fanatic. 'No matter how many songs he sings, Ozzy always always sounds like they just grabbed him off the street and stuck him in front of a microphone, and then they either handed him a piece of paper with some lyrics on it or he already had some written on his hand or something.' In Rolling Stone's year-end issue for 1990, the first page had loads of stars giving their summary of the year, mostly pimping their latest career highlights. But Ozzy kept it short and sweet. 'One of the greatest heroes of all time said it in 1969: 'Give peace a chance.' Let's all try for it in 1991.' A typical Oz statement, full of contradictions (he was only a year past getting arrested for attacking his wife in a drunken stupor) but also that innate Ozzy sincerity. John Lennon had a similar cocktail in his personality, but he was also armored with complex layers of defensive wit and irony that Ozzy simply didn't have in his system. 'Give peace a chance' remained an aspirational ideal for Ozzy, the guy who kept doing the peace sign in public long after it went out of style for rock stars. 'We were the last hippie band,' he told RS in 2002. 'We were into peace.' After bombing out of Sabbath, he could have symbolized everything complacent, decadent, and dull about old-school rock. Yet he was never a joke. Like Geddy Lee, his opposite in so many other ways, he was cherished as an evolutionary mishap who symbolized his own kind of uncompromised integrity. One of the highlights of seeing my first Replacements show, a dingy all-aged matinee in the summer of 1986, was seeing Paul Westerberg and the boys lock into 'Iron Man,' one of the few songs they came close to finishing. Later that year, the Beastie Boys opened Licensed to Ill with the sampled 'Sweet Leaf' riff of 'Rhymin and Stealin,' dragging Sabbath into the Eighties the same way Run-D.M.C. did for Aerosmith. One of his best Eighties moments: Ozzy's classic egg-frying scene in Decline of Western Civilization Part II. He's the rock star at home, puttering around the kitchen in a leopard-print robe, a Real Housewife of Darkness, looking more like Rue McLanahan in The Golden Girls then any rock star you could name. He fixes breakfast, ineptly frying eggs and bacon while trying to pour himself a glass of orange juice on the counter. He gets about half of it into the actual glass. He also discusses his latest attempt to get sober. Director: 'Do you feel better now?' Ozzy: 'No.' He became even more iconic in the Nineties. Beck gave him a classic shout-out on MTV's 120 Minutes, in his famous February 1994 sit-down with Thurston Moore and Mike D — perhaps the most Nineties moment of television ever aired. Beck wore a thrift-store hockey shirt that proclaimed 'Stop! Tell Me I'm Ozzy Because I Am.' He'd written 'Ozzy' on a piece of masking tape and stuck it over whatever the original word was. He also made his plea in 'Ozzy' on his album Stereopathetic Soulmanure. (Sample lyric: 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy/What does it mean?/The fire is green.') By now, Ozzy was a fact of life that songwriters couldn't resist evoking as a way to set the table. 'It's reigning triple sec in Tchula/And the radio plays 'Crazy Train,'' David Berman drawled in the 1996 Silver Jews classic 'Black and Brown Blues,' with Ozzy as an unelectable symbol of ur-American burnout ordinariness. The Hold Steady's Craig Finn sang 'Playing records in a rented room/Hotter Than Hell into Bark at the Moon' in 2012, just as his songwriting heir MJ Lenderman sang a dozen years later, 'I've never seen the 'Mona Lisa'/I've never really left my room/I've been up too late playing Guitar Hero/Playing 'Bark at the Moon.'' He went on to help invent reality TV with The Osbournes, the blockbuster MTV hit that turned him into a sitcom dad. It starred a real-life family who could only communicate with a camera crew present, constantly cutting a promo in every interaction, with dialogue full of bleeped profanity. It's fitting since reality TV became the social menace as feared and dreaded as metal used to be. But my favorite Ozzy memory will always be seeing him on the Retirement Sucks tour in 1996, at Meriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland, a love-fest where Ozzy basked in the adoration of the audience, which he craved, but nowhere near as much as the audience did. Nobody really cared that Ozzy needed a teleprompter, which was a shocking innovation at the time; everybody within six miles of the venue knew all the words to 'Iron Man,' down to the security guards, but absolutely nobody was mad that Ozzy was the only one there who didn't. 'Is anyone smoking that sweet leaf?' he asked. 'When I said I quit, I fucking lied!' It was an overwhelming feeling of warmth and joy just to be in the same room with Ozzy, as it always was. And as long as his music lives on — which it will — being in the same room as Ozzy is always the place to be. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: ‘In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking'
'Can you believe I'm in Ozzy's hometown tonight?' It's a quarter to ten, and Lita Ford, 66, is backstage at K.K. Downing's club in Birmingham, zipped into leather, the air thick with anticipation and sweat. Ford is about to deliver what will be the most wrenching live performance of 'Close My Eyes Forever' — her aching 1989 power ballad with Ozzy Osbourne that became Osbourne's first and only Top 10 hit. 'It's going to be really emotional,' she says. 'I didn't tear up until I turned around and looked at the beautiful stage set we have in Ozzy's honor, and everything sort of kicked in. I keep thinking — how did we end up here? How did Ozzy end up passing away? And here we are in Birmingham — Birmingham! — where it all began.' More from Rolling Stone Ozzy Osbourne Documentary 'No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert Ozzy Osbourne's Top Ten Beatles Songs That kind of eerie alignment is how the song came into the world in the first place. It was 1987. Ford was 29, figuring out her post-Runaways identity; Osbourne was 39, adrift in addiction. But one wine-soaked night at Record One Studios in Los Angeles, the two rockers went into a cramped room with a keyboard and an amp, and by morning, had written something bruised, delicate, and timeless. Ford spoke to Rolling Stone about that night, what Black Sabbath meant to her, and the Easter dinner that ended with Osbourne holding a carving knife as everyone realized, a bit too late, that this was not a great idea. Tonight feels like a night to remember where we came from, where Ozzy came from, where we all came from, and the music that lives through our souls. I know the audience is going to get pretty choked up when they hear 'Close My Eyes.' Ozzy has been such a huge part of my life in so many ways, starting from when I was just a little girl. I grew up listening to Black Sabbath. I used to walk through the house and play their riffs on guitar. My first concert ever was Black Sabbath in 1972 — I was just a teenager. My parents didn't always like everybody, but they always tolerated Black Sabbath and supported me. My mother would always ask me, 'Oh, Lita, play some Black Sabbath!' So I'd go off and play 'War Pigs' or something, and she loved it. She was a big fan, and both my parents loved Ozzy and Sharon. One time they came over for Easter dinner. Picture this: a small middle-class neighborhood, and they pull up in a limousine. Of course, Ozzy gets out with Sharon, and the neighbors were losing their minds. Sharon comes in and sits down in the middle of my bed — I still lived at home, had been there since before The Runaways days in 1975. She was tiny, had lost a bunch of weight, and she sat cross-legged and looked at me. 'Do you like my belt?' she asked. I said, 'Yeah, it's awesome.' She smiled and said, 'I haven't worn this belt since I was 14.' She felt so good and was so happy. Meanwhile, Ozzy sat in the corner of the living room and chugged a bottle of wine. We gave him a glass, but he put it down, grabbed the bottle, and started to sink slowly into the sofa. After he finished the wine, my father asked if he wanted to carve the Easter lamb — my mother had roasted a leg of lamb. 'Yeah, I'll cut it,' he said. My father handed him the knife, and he got up and started cutting. Somehow it slipped off the table, went off the plate, and ended up underneath the table. My father stood there and laughed his ass off at Ozzy. He thought Ozzy was so entertaining and amusing — and he was. Then Ozzy looks up at my mom and says, 'I don't eat meat.' Ozzy was, by the way, always the best-dressed guy. He always had the best clothes, jewelry, and shoes. Sharon was a big part of that, but he just looked amazing all the time. Sometimes there's money — a lot of money — and looking amazing, and sometimes there's just getting yourself together without so much money. You've got to find those magic things and own them and wear them and be who you are. The night we wrote 'Close My Eyes Forever' came not too long after that. Sharon had come over to the studio to see me with a housewarming gift: a life-size duplicate of Koko, this massive gorilla. After she left, Ozzy stayed at the studio. There was a little room off to the corner of the control room with a keyboard and guitar, so we went in there and started playing. Ozzy started singing, I started playing the guitar parts, and it all came together overnight. By the time we came out of that little room, the sun was up. We were a little high, I have to admit. Sometimes that's what you've got to do — you just have to lose yourself to be creative. I mean, I pick my poison every once in a while when I need an attitude adjustment. Mine is whiskey. I love my whiskey. Artists as creative as Ozzy, who grew up in Black Sabbath, need something to take the edge off. Ozzy enjoyed drinking and doing drugs — he enjoyed it. He also became more creative when he drank and did drugs, though he might pass out afterwards. During the creative process, sometimes you just have to have a little bit of poison to write something like that. These songs are poisonous songs, and I think that's what everybody loves about them. That's why people can relate. That morning, we came out with this great song. I drove home with Koko strapped to the front seat of my Jeep. Ozzy went the opposite direction over Laurel Canyon — we put him in a taxi because I couldn't drive all the way over there and back. When he got home, Sharon was upset with us. She called and gave me a mouthful, and I'm sure Ozzy got one too. She was not happy. But hey, we got a Top 10 hit single out of it, so I'm going to be happy about that. 'Close My Eyes Forever' is something a lot of people play at funerals. A lot of people have love for that song because it's beautiful. In Ozzy's name, keep rocking. Great rock stars never truly die. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ozzy Osbourne Documentary ‘No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall
An upcoming documentary about Ozzy Osbourne's health setbacks in recent years and his desire to stage a farewell concert will still arrive later this year despite the heavy metal legend's death Tuesday. No Escape From Now, described as 'a deeply personal portrait of the rock legend's harsh new realities and his battle to take the stage for one final performance,' will hit Paramount+ this autumn, a rep for the filmmakers confirmed to Rolling Stone. More from Rolling Stone Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: 'In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking' Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert Ozzy Osbourne's Top Ten Beatles Songs 'We are truly heartbroken to hear the news of Ozzy's passing,' Phil and Tania Alexander, the creative team behind No Escape From Now, said in a statement. 'Filming with him, Sharon, Aimee, Kelly and Jack for the last three and a half years will always be a cherished and remarkable experience – largely because we got to regularly witness Ozzy's indomitable spirit, his mischievous, irresistible grin and his masterful display of unique one-liners. We will always love you dear Oz. And we send love and strength to Sharon and her family.' In addition to its access to Osbourne, the film features appearances by Osbourne's wife and manager, Sharon, as well as several musicians who have played with him over the years: Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, guitarist Zakk Wylde, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. It will also feature commentary from Billy Idol, Idol's guitarist and Osbourne's close friend Billy Morrison, Tool singer Maynard James Keenan, and record producer Andrew Watt. No Escape From Now also filmed footage at Osbourne and Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning farewell concert earlier this month, a rep for the film said. A rep declined to comment on what changes, if any, would be made to the film in light of Osbourne's death. 'The last six years have been full of some of the worst times I've been through,' Osbourne previously said of the documentary in a statement. 'There's been times when I thought my number was up. But making music and making two albums saved me. I'd have gone nuts without music. My fans have supported me for so many years, and I really want to thank them and say a proper goodbye to them. That is what the Villa Park show [in Birmingham] is about.' The documentary is one of a handful of projects Osbourne had in the works prior to his death at the age of 76, just weeks after his triumphant farewell show in Birmingham, England. The singer's now-posthumous memoir Last Rites, which also focuses on his health issues, is set to publish in October, while a concert film centered on Back to the Beginning will hit the big screen in 2026. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword
